Every January, Digital TV Research publishes its annual forecast for pay TV in Africa.
According to these new forecasts, the number of subscribers to pay TV services is expected to increase by 12 million between 2023 and 2029: +7 million for satellite television and +5 million for digital terrestrial television.
The total number of subscribers is expected to reach 55 million in 2029, broken down as follows: Satellite TV: 33 million subscribers, DTT: 21 million subscribers
At the end of 2023, the number of pay TV subscribers stood at 43 million (26 million via satellite TV and 16 million via DTT).
Compared to last year's forecasts, this represents a significant slowdown, as a total of 57 million subscribers were expected in 2028 (compared to a forecast of only 55 million in 2029 in the new estimate) and a projected increase of 16 million in 2028 compared to only 12 million in 2029.
The study also provides the number of subscribers per country; among French-speaking countries, we can note the growth of the DRC, which will have 3.4 million subscribers in 2029, and Côte d'Ivoire (2.3 million subscribers in 2029).
Four countries account for nearly 50% of total pay TV subscribers by 2029: Nigeria (10 million subscribers), South Africa (8.1 million subscribers), Tanzania (5.0 million subscribers), and the DRC (3.4 million subscribers).